IRC/wikipedia-en-admins

#wikipedia-en-admins is a closed IRC channel allowing for real-time communications among administrators on the English Wikipedia and selected others. In addition to English Wikipedia administrators, access to the channel has been provided to some administrators on other Wikimedia projects, former admins, developers, and other users. The channel is managed by its operator team. Wikimedia IRC channels as a whole are managed by the Group Contacts.

A list of all users, including the channel operators, is available here. See below for instructions on how to join. All participants in the channel are expected to abide by the guidelines.

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As envisioned by the founders and channel operators, the main purpose of the channel is to provide a forum for interaction among administrators. The channel provides a place for admins to obtain input from their colleagues on issues that arise from time to time, as well as to seek out an administrator with particular skills or interests to address a situation, or to locate a functionary such as a checkuser, bureaucrat, or steward where called for.

In addition to these primary purposes, the channel also facilitates social interaction among the administrator corps and other invitees apart from their day-to-day on-wiki dealings. The channel also has played an occasional but valuable role in emergency circumstances, such as when a rogue administrator deleted the Main Page and blocked Jimbo Wales. Foundation staff and board members sometimes come into the channel with a problem needing solving. It's a work channel with a lot of background chatting.

Important: The channel is useful for administrators to double-check themselves or obtain second opinions prior to acting, but in-channel discussion is never a substitute for an administrator's taking responsibility for his or her own administrator actions, nor for on-wiki discussions (on WP:ANI or another appropriate forum) of controversial issues or decisions. Basing an admin decision on IRC discussion is a bad idea. You bear responsibility for your own actions.

All users who are able to receive (or currently have) admin rights on the English Wikipedia are entitled to access to the #wikipedia-en-admins channel. (For our purposes, "admin rights" is defined as the ability to delete and protect pages.)

This includes all users listed at en:Special:ListUsers/sysop, stewards (who have admin rights through the global steward group), some members of the Wikimedia Foundation staff (who have admin rights through the global staff group), sysadmins (who have admin rights through the global sysadmin group), and any former admin who would (theoretically) be able to go to the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and be re-granted the admin bit upon request.

In the case of permanently imposed de-adminship, the user shall lose access to -en-admins. In the case of temporary de-adminship, the user shall lose access for the length of the temporary de-adminship.

All Wikipedia administrators are technically entitled to entry to the channel. If you're an English Wikipedia admin, see the instructions on Wikipedia. Also consider pinging the channel operators or the ops in #wikimedia-ops (with !ops) which may expedite the process. If you wish for 'automatic' access where a /cs invite command is not required, please ask an op while in the channel. A cloak is required for this, they will op themselves and do /mode +I *!*@your/cloak/here

Once an editor is granted access, he or she generally retains it indefinitely. No formal process for the removal of access exists and such matters have so far been addressed by the channel operators as a group on a case-by-case basis. Formal access to the channel will not be revoked unless a participant refuses to abide by the standards of conduct expected of channel members.